Is it just my feeling or has Apple changed? A few years back my iPhone 5 started expanding. Obviously a bad battery. It was over 2 years old and out of warranty. I took it to an Apple Store and they replaced it with a refurb at no cost to me. I was surprised and impressed as I was prepared to pay something. Recently my old iPad 3 stopped charging. I called to see about getting the battery replaced. I was told that they didn’t do that but I could buy a refurb for $350. Not impressed. That’s almost the cost of a new one.

Is this Tim Cook or Angela Ahrendts? I could ask the same about the non-upgradeable Macs? What would Steve have done?

Interesting thoughts from Bob, and I have considered such things recently as well. The problem for Apple here is that historically the company has offered amazingly good customer service, likely some of the best in the world, but there has been a change which is presumably down to the balance sheet. Cook is a money man, Jobs was a product guy and someone who seemed to understand that long-term profits come from great products, great customer service and always surprising the customer at every opportunity.

I’m not sure that Apple today isn’t under too much pressure from analysts and countless other groups of people to surprise anymore, and a part of my wonders if the products needed to allow such generosity are simply not in the pipeline.

It’s difficult. I still trust Apple above most tech companies and expect better service than I would get from the likes of Samsung, but there is an opportunity here to continue, and possibly, grow the gap over the competition. Few companies succeed forever by looking at the numbers above everything else.

Categories: Apple